Caffeine
First, yet another in a long series of studies citing coffee as having some protectant effect, this time against prostate cancer (along with "... lower risks of Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, liver cancer and an aggressive type of breast cancer," among other things). I was reminded of a study from not too long ago stating that kids who drink moderate amounts of caffeine handle it better in adulthood (similar to some results with sugar). I couldn't find that study but ran across this article in the course of looking for it. Now, my personal opinion is that the effects of caffeine from say coffee or chocolate, the whole, plant-based chemical, are likely to be considerably different than those of a synthesized version like what's added to soda and other processed foods, just as there's a significant difference between Fentanyl/Oxy/heroin/morphine and unadulterated opium or nicotine (which works on the opioid receptors), or between 'Spice' and marijuana, or between psilocybin and LSD, or between the sugar extracted by chewing cane and the refined, processed version we buy by the bag and with which, incidentally, we load up our processed foods including... soda (which is itself a 'refined, process version' of what used to be actual root beer, and sarsasparilla, and soda water flavored with vanilla bean or cherry extract and actual chocolate syrup). Like anything else, the process of refinement makes food and drink more potent in some ways (for good and ill) and less effective in others. It's not wrong to use these products, but unwise (as with anything) to use them to excess.
Of greater interest is the following:
Caffeine certainly yields both physical and emotional modifications in children; but is every change for the worst?
Marjorie Roth Leon, PhD, of National-Louis University, thinks not. She performed an aggregate analysis of 19 empirical studies examining the effects of caffeine on aspects of cognitive, psychomotor, and emotional functioning among children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Traditional treatments, such as the stimulant drugs methylphenidate and amphetamine, outperformed caffeine in improving functioning and reducing levels of hyperactivity. However, says Leon, "compared to giving children with ADHD no treatment whatsoever, caffeine appears to have potential to improve their functioning in the areas of improved parent and teacher perceptions of their behavior, reduced levels of aggression, impulsiveness and hyperactivity, and improved levels of executive functioning and planning."
It seems to me that the more logical approach, however, might be to approach it from the idea that as many children as can be helped more gently via caffeine ought to be if it allows them to avoid the potentially much more severe side effects of methylphenidate and amphetamine, for cryin' out loud.
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